They can continue to play the game of "my bit pipeis bigger than your bit pipe", but it will notmatter because their bit pipes will not beconnected and routed. That frees up all of theirIP address blocks.

ATT/SBC does not care, they now have that ATT/8 and all of the remaining address space thatthe IANA never sold. They now just homestead itwith the other major players that have agreedto do that, at the IP layer. TCP and UDP are noteven in the picture. Comments about Ports andPort 25 and Port 80 are irrelevant to the big boys,the BITS Providers.

Response from the Inner Circle:"do you want some legislation that gives the CEO of ATT/SBC the world largest dinosaur a blank check to do as he wishes with *HIS* network. This bills language is HIGHLY deceptive. I too despise government incompetence but giving Whittacre a blank check is IMHO much worse."

The regulations are mostly in the area of speedand performance, something the research/hobbyistnets never really cared about. To have a nationwide,reliable, secure, and consistent packet transport,you have to consider end-to-end performance.

One of the major issues will be whether Hawaii,Alaska, and the other various islands, such asCUBA, are part of the.UBA from a regulatedperformance point of view. Congress can notlegislate that a single thin fiber will carrymore bits, it just lays there and does not care.